Tähän päättyy kesä (This concludes the summer)

—contemporary Finnish folktale

 

The northern wind is (unaccountably) making my grandfather silly—though he’s in his grave—though he was (unaccountably) Lutheran—though he redacted joy during his sojourn on earth. 

He gets in touch. “Pine turps and baby coffins,” he says, via Morse, with a branch and a window. Then, for a long time, he’s silent, drinking in the marl-ish ichor of eternity. Then, tap tap tap: 

“Winter wind. Stop. Bells ringing in underworld. Stop. 

The dead laugh, throw spoons in snow.”